West=On=Track
-News

West on Track welcomes
Commencement of Relaying of Western Rail
Corridor

Press Release 16th
November 2007

The Minister for Transport, Mr. Noel Dempsey TD, the
Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Mr.
Éamon O'Cuív TD and the Chairman of CIÉ
and Iarnród Éireann, Dr John Lynch will attend
at a Press Event at Craughwell Level Crossing today to mark
the commencement of track work on the first phase of the
Western Rail Corridor, between Limerick and Galway.

Representatives of the West on Track Community Campaign
from Clare, Galway, Mayo and Sligo and Local Government
representatives will also be present.

Commending Iarnród Éireann and the
Government, a spokesman for West on Track said that the
announcement is another welcome indication that the
Government is intent on pressing ahead with the WRC project
as part of the Transport 21 programme.

"West on Track warmly welcomes the formal announcement
today at Craughwell Level Crossing, Co. Galway, by Mr. Noel
Dempsey T.D., Minister for Transport, of the commencement of
relaying work on Phase One of the Western Rail Corridor from
Ennis to Athenry. As part of Transport 21, the Western Rail
Corridor project will see the largest re-opening of a
railway in the history of the state and the most significant
infrastructural development in the entire western region for
generations."

"Iarnród Éireann is to be warmly
congratulated for the professional and speedy manner in
which it is progressing the project. Already two miles of
the new railway are in place along with a host of other
engineering and preparatory works. Direct rail services
between Limerick and Galway will begin running by 2009 upon
completion of the euro106.5 million redevelopment of the
Ennis-Athenry line, the first stage of the wider Western
Rail Corridor project under Transport 21."